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Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz (/ˌsɛrəˈfɪnəwɪtʃ/SERR-ə-FIN-ə-witch; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, voice actor, comedian, and writer. Appearing in a large variety of film roles, his most well-known are Pete in Shaun of the Dead (2004), Stanley in Couples Retreat (2009) and Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Serafinowicz has appeared in many British and American comedy series. He currently stars as the title character in the live-action adaptation of The Tick (2016 TV series), and has been praised for his political satire parody videos where he voices a posh version of Donald Trump. Early life Serafinowicz was born 10 July 1972 in Liverpool.1 He is of Belarusian and Polishdescent. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School.2 Career Serafinowicz made his broadcasting debut in 1993 on Radio 1 show The Knowledge, a spoof documentary about the music industry. From there he went on to perform in Radio 4 shows Week Ending, Harry Hill's Fruit Corner, Grievous Bodily Radio, The Two Dannys and A Whole New Ball Game. On 1 May 1997, he appeared in The Election Night Armistice as Moz Bingham, the fictional press secretary to the then shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who verbally abuses the BBC's Nick Robinson in a spoof phone call over the politician's news coverage. In 1998 he appeared on TV in Comedy Nationand You are Here. He also had a role in the Simon Nye-penned sitcom How Do You Want Me?. In 1999, he had a few guest appearances in the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, playing protagonistTim Bisley's (Simon Pegg) nemesis, Duane Benzie. He made another cameo appearance in the series when it returned in 2001. In 2001, he took the lead in BBC Two sitcom World of Pub, playing the same character as he had done in the show's run on Radio 4. He appeared in The Junkies, an Internet sitcom. In 2002, the critically acclaimed Look Around You, a series of 10-minute 1970s school science video spoofs, debuted on BBC Two in which he played a scientist. He co-wrote the show alongside Robert Popper, whom he met on the set of Spaced. The show returned in 2005 as a spoof of the 1980s show Tomorrow's World, with Serafinowicz playing Peter Packard, one of the presenters. In 2003, he appeared in another Nye-written sitcom, Hardware, in which he played the affable Kenny. He reprised this role in the second series in 2004. Also in 2004 he appeared in British rom-zom-com (romantic-zombie-comedy) Shaun of the Dead, playing Pete, the uptight flatmate of principal characters Shaun and Ed. He appeared in boxing film The Calcium Kid. In Sixty Six, the 2006 British film about a Jewishboy whose bar mitzvah is scheduled for the same day as the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, Serafinowicz plays Uncle Jimmy. In the week before the 2006 Academy Awards a video circulated on the Internet of a fake news item (called "O! News", a parody of E! News) about a new Oscar statue, in which Serafinowicz imitated Alan Alda, Paul McCartney and Al Pacino. A second O! News video later appeared, parodying the 2006 Apple Corps v. Apple Computer lawsuit. This attracted the interest of the BBC, and a pilot was commissioned for The Peter Serafinowicz Show. A full series was broadcast on BBC Two in 2007 (with a Christmas special in 2008). For his performance, Serafinowicz was presented with the Best Entertainer prize at the 2008 Rose d'Orceremony.3 The series was also nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards.4 Serafinowicz made guest appearances on television, including the comedy shows Smack the Pony and Hippies (both 1999), Black Books(2000), I'm Alan Partridge (2002) and Little Britain (2003), comedy-drama Murder Most Horrid (1999) and ITV drama series Agatha Christie's Marple (2005). He made a number of guest appearances on both television and radio panel shows. He regularly appeared on The 99p Challenge and appeared on Have I Got News for You in 2005, 2006 and 2008, 8 Out of 10 Cats in 2005, and QI in 2003. He also appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 19 October 2007, Would I Lie to You? on 8 August 2008 and 30 July 2010 and Never Mind the Buzzcocks on 15 October 2009. In 2008, Serafinowicz was working with Robert Popper on a new television series, as well as a website, based on a spoof religion "Tarvuism" for US network Adult Swim.5 In 2009, he appeared in Universal Films' Couples Retreat as Sctanley, the manager of the Eden Resort, directed by Peter Billingsley. In 2010, Serafinowicz directed the music video for Hot Chip's song "I Feel Better", their second single from the album One Life Stand. He followed this up in 2012 when he directed the music video for the band's song "Night & Day", the first single from their album In Our Heads. In 2010, he co-starred with Will Arnett in the FOX sitcom Running Wilde, devised by Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz. It premiered on Fox on 21 September 2010,6but was cancelled by the network after 13 episodes. In June 2013, Serafinowicz provided the English language audiobook recording for the Roald Dahl novel Danny, the Champion of the World.7In July 2013, he made his film directing debut with the dark comedy film I See What You Did There,8 which he wrote, along with Danny Wallace.9 In 2014 it was announced that Serafinowicz would play the role of Crowley in the BBC Radio 4 adaption of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens.10 That same year, he was featured in Guardians of the Galaxy; playing Garthan Saal, a Denarian ranking pilot of the Nova Corps. He appeared in Series 9 of Doctor Who as the voice of The Fisher King.11 Beginning in 2016 during the presidential campaign, Serafinowicz frequently posts a series of YouTube videos entitled "Sassy Trump", in which he redubs speeches from Donald Trump with a camp voice.12 He has also created parodies dubbing Trump with a Cockney accent, and with a posh English accent.13 Due to his impersonation of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, Matt Berry sang a duet with him on Berry's 2009 album Witchazel. The track in question was "Rain Came Down", where he was billed as "Paul Mcartney" (sic).14 He stars in the title role of Amazon's The Tick, the pilot for which premiered on 19 August 2016.15 Personal life Serafinowicz is married to actress Sarah Alexander.16 His brother James is a film producer17 and writer; his sister Helen is a writer, and is married to writer-director Graham Linehan. 18 In October 2007, Serafinowicz dropped his attempt to use the Human Rights Act against the national newspapers. He had sought to prevent the publication of details revealing that his grandfather, Szymon Serafinowicz, was the first man in the UK to have been tried under the War Crimes Act.19 His grandfather was charged with direct involvement in three murders and personal involvement in the destruction of the Jewish populations of Mirand Minsk, but found unfit for trial on grounds of dementia in 1997 and died later that year, aged 86.20 Filmography Television